​This week we welcomed our new teacher assistant, Ms. Sarah who will be helping our morning class on Tuesday, Thursday, & Friday. We now have two assistants every morning.

We read The Dot (Peter H. Reynolds), a book about creativity and making our own mark in the world. Then we made our own dot pictures. You can see them displayed in our classroom. We also continued working on our Beautiful Stuff project. Our letters are coming out AWESOME!

After reading If You Take a Mouse to School (Laura Numeroff) we spoke about what we do in school. I sense a theme running through here.

Seriously though, play is the work of children. The research is clear: play enhances social/emotional, physical and cognitive development in the early years. Children need time to play for no other reason than just to play. They need us, their caregivers, to be well informed about the benefits of play as well as be supportive of their play. There is an alarming trend recently to introduce more “academic” content through direct instruction to young children. Although research has proven that this approach works for the short term, further research has shown that it does not sustain long-term benefits and has had a negative impact on some youngsters (think behavioral issues, anxiety, stress, defiance.)

“Young children learn the most important things not by being told but by constructing knowledge for themselves in interaction with the physical world and with other children – and the way they do this is by playing.”(Source: Jones, E., & Reynolds, G. (1992). The play’s the thing: Teachers’ roles in children’s play, p. 1)

So I say…let the children play!

This week we also made our own orange play dough! We all helped to measure, scoop, pour, mix and knead! This activity covered many early learning developmental skills such as cognitive (vocabulary: measure, scoop, pour, mix, knead), social skills (waiting our turn, which was very hard), math (measuring), science (liquids, solids, red + yellow = orange), & physical (using our FM skills to mix & knead which will eventually strengthen our writing skills). We then used “loose parts” (pipe cleaners, gemstones, fabric leaves, craft sticks) to create some unique masterpieces. Above all, it was tons of fun!

Sadly, we said goodbye to our friend, Andrew this week. He will be starting the Sachem UPK program next week. Although we will miss him lots, we know he is going to love it and have a great experience! Good luck, Andrew!

Looking Ahead:• Remember: School picture day is on 9/30 & 10/1. Flyers & envelopes were sent home. If you want to order pictures, the money must be sent in before or on picture day.• Open house for parents will be scheduled in October. • Field trip information to come soon.• Speech screenings will be offered by Little Angels Center at no cost to families. More information to come as soon as the dates are scheduled.

Reminder:• Scholastic October flyers were sent home last week. Book orders are due Friday, 10/11/15.

Always feel free to speak to any of us about any concerns/issues you might have. We are all in this together & want your child to have the most positive preschool experience possible!

We actually have a full week of school next week! All five days! Woo hoo!

We read Snuggle Wuggle (Jonathan London), a book about the many different ways animals cuddle & snuggle with their families.

Our Beautiful Stuff project is underway. We are designing our alphabet letters with all of the beautiful stuff we have collected. These letters will decorate our classroom walls. Our leftover beautiful stuff will be available for additional art projects.

After reading ABC by Jane Foster, we made an ABC chart & listed our names for each letter of alphabet.

We read Voices are Not for Yelling (Elizabeth Verdick) and discussed when to use our inside voices and outside voices. We're practicing using our inside voices in school. We also read No Hitting (Karen Katz) and learned how to appropriately express our anger.

Sand table, dramatic play (kitchen, construction zone), blocks, cars & trains and art are some of our favorite centers. Some of us enjoy playing with our pretend pets and walking them on leashes made of links we chain together. Pretend play is important for our development as we begin to make sense of the world around us. We mimic activities we see our families and other grown ups do such as cooking, cleaning, raking leaves, etc. We love to help sweep up the sand with the broom and dust pan. We can help around the house by doing simple household chores such as putting away the silverware (helps with sorting), sorting laundry, sweeping, raking, even helping to cook. Giving us a job makes us feel important and responsible.

Looking Ahead:

School picture day is on 9/30 & 10/1. Flyers & envelopes were sent home this past week. If you haven't yet received yours, more will be going home next week.

Open house for parents will be scheduled in October.

Field trip information to come soon.

Speech screenings will be offered by Little Angels Center at no cost to families. More information to come as soon as the dates are scheduled.

Reminder:

Please keep sending in those family photos for our family tree. We've been sharing our pictures with our friends & will hang them up very soon.

Scholastic book orders were placed last weekend & October flyers will be sent home next week.

Always feel free to speak to any of us about any concerns/issues you might have. We are all in this together & want your child to have the most positive preschool experience possible!School is closed on Wednesday, September 23, 2015 due to Yom Kippur.Enjoy this last weekend of summer.Ms. Sheri, Ms. Joyce, Miss Miranda, Ms. Fabi & Ms. Bethany

Our second week in school was full of more fun! We reviewed our class rules & expanded our list by adding a few more.

Our reminders are working very well. The children are reminded that they made the rules & we need to follow them. They respond wonderfully & like to repeat the rules to their friends.

We read the book, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (Bill Martin, Jr. & John Archambault) & put together the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom puzzle as a small group. We reviewed the ABC's & sang the Alphabet Song while Ms. Sheri signed the letters using ASL. We also read The Kissing Hand (Audrey Penn) & My Somebody Special (Sarah Weeks).

The Kissing Hand is a story about Chester Raccoon who is going to school for the first time. He doesn't want to go because he rather stay home with his mom. But his mom assures him that he will have a wonderful time in school. Then she shares with Chester a special family secret which will make school feel as cozy as home. Chester's mom kisses his palm & tells him that whenever he misses her while at school, all he has to do is press his hand to his cheek & he will feel the warmth of her kiss. Chester felt much better about going to school & even gave his mom her own kissing hand for when she missed him.

My Somebody Special was a story about the special people who pick us up from school. We then spoke about our special somebody’s.

Our friend Max had a great idea to put bulldozers in the sand table. We love to scoop, pour, push & more with the sand. It's a great sensory activity & helps us learn about measuring as well as concepts such as empty/full & sharing, among many others.

We're almost finished designing & decorating our birthday crowns. Once finished, they will be displayed in the classroom. When it's our special day, we will have our crown ready to wear!

Thank you for sending in items for our Beautiful Stuff project. We began showing off our materials & telling our friends about them. We also started sorting them by category. We are looking forward to designing our alphabet letters with all of the beautiful stuff we have collected. There's still time to send yours in if you haven't yet done so.

For some of our children, the honeymoon appears to be over. While some children experienced anxiety during the first few days of preschool, others have now realized that this is their new routine. Both scenarios are very typical for young children. Here are a few ideas to help out:

Clearly state to your child where you will be & when you will return. It may also be helpful to discuss what will happen when you are reunited.

Maintain a clear good-bye routine. This may include telling your child you are leaving in 3 minutes, a kiss & hug, or a wave from the window. Once you tell your child you are leaving, it is important to follow through. Extending the good-bye with, "Ok just one more kiss, & then I really have to go” tends to heighten anxiety rather than relieve it. Avoid sneaking out, as this seems to encourage children to become less trusting & might make the next drop off even harder.

I promise you, it is so much harder on us as parents than it actually is on our kids. Try not to feel guilty. I've been there myself. Children are so much more resilient than we give them credit for & adjust much easier than we think they can. While some might take a bit longer than others to adjust, they all eventually have a wonderful time in preschool.

Looking Ahead:

•School picture day will be on 9/30 & 10/1. Flyers & envelopes will be sent home soon.•Field trip information to come soon.•Speech screenings will be offered by Little Angels Center at no cost to families. More information to come as soon as the dates are scheduled.

Reminder:

•Please keep sending in those family photos for our family tree.•Scholastic book orders will be placed this weekend.

Always feel free to speak to any of us about any concerns/issues you might have. We are all in this together & want your child to have the most positive preschool experience possible!

Happy Rosh Hashanah to our friends who celebrate. Hope you have a sweet New Year! L'Shanah Tova!

As we get ready to kick off our 2nd school year at Creative Kids, we would like to welcome all of our new students & families as well as all of our returning students & families! We are truly grateful that you have entrusted us with your precious little ones and look forward to a fun-filled and exciting school year!

This month we will spend time observing our students to discover their interests during play. We will also introduce many exciting topics, including the identification and recognition of body parts, letters, numbers, shapes and colors. In addition, we will learn to recognize our names in print and for our older students; we will practice writing skills in our writing center. All of these skills will be learned through developmentally appropriate play-based activities

Our first week in school was fabulous! During the first few days we adjusted to the classroom routine, made new friends & helped make a list of classroom rules. Having the children help establish the class rules allows them to take ownership of the classroom. I don’t want our classroom to be mine. I want the children to know that it belongs to them too. The rules also become a tool for learning how to take part in a democratic community. If someone breaks a rule, the teachers can say, “Remember that you and your friends made a rule that says walking feet in the classroom.”

During circle time, we sang songs to shake out our “sillies” to help us attend to activities and stories. We read Let’s Go to School (Michelle Petty), The Night Before Preschool (Natasha Wing), The Awful Aardvarks go to School (Reeve Lindbergh) and ABC, School’s for Me! (Susan B. Katz) These stories helped us adjust to being at school and away from our homes. We also talked about how we felt on the first day of school as well as our favorite activities to do in school.

During center time, we played in the housekeeping and construction areas as well as built with blocks and completed puzzles. We also used crayons, colored pencils and watercolors. These are just a few of the activities we participated in this week. Next week is sure to be even more fun.

Looking Ahead:

•School picture day will be on 9/30 & 10/1. Flyers & envelopes will be sent home soon.•We are looking into some field trips including a trip to the Holbrook Fire Dept. We will need some help with carpooling for these trips. More information to come soon.•Speech screenings will be offered by Little Angels Center at no cost to families. More information to come as soon as the dates are scheduled.

Reminder:

•Please send in items for our Beautiful Stuff project by Friday, 9/11/15.•Also, please remember to send in a family picture for our family tree.•Scholastic book orders are due on Friday, 9/11/15.

Remember to ask your child open-ended questions about their day. This will encourage open communication between parents and children as well as help develop their language skills.

Have a wonderful 3-day weekend. Remember that Monday is Labor Day so there is no school. We’ll see you on Tuesday!